1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to animal feeders and more specifically to animal feeders for dispensing food to small wild animals while also providing play for the animals and amusement for human spectators.
2. Description of the Related Art
Small wild animals such as squirrels are often active and playful as they feed, and many people find them enjoyable and amusing to watch. Therefore, it has become popular to provide feeders loaded with grains and seeds and other foods near human dwellings in order to attract squirrels and other animals to a place where they can be easily observed. In addition to conventional feeders that merely provide a reservoir of food at a convenient location, other feeders have been proposed that require an increased level of action by the small animals to extract the food, which provides both a source of play for the animals and a source of amusement for their human observers.
An action feeder is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,429, issued Nov. 3, 1970, to Gerald D. Regan. The feeder includes a vertically disposed disc mounted to a tree for rotation about a horizontal axis. A plurality of spikes project laterally from the disc near the perimeter and extend parallel to the axis of rotation. An ear of corn is impaled on each spike. As the squirrels attempt to feed from the ears of corn, they unavoidably cause to the disc to rotate, which leads to a variety of interesting action.
Another action feeder is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,062, issued Dec. 30, 1986, to Jack E. Hubbard. The feeder includes an elongate bar mounted for pivotal rotation about a horizontal axis intermediate the ends of the bar. An ear of corn is affixed to one end of the bar, and the pivot axis is located nearer one end of the bar than the other. As a squirrel climbs on the bar to get to the ear of corn, his body weight causes the bar to rotate, whereupon the squirrel is made to swing in an arc as he clings to the rotating bar.
Since a variety of foods that appeal to squirrels and other small animals are available in granular form, such as seeds and grains, it would be desirable to provide an action feeder that can hold and dispense granular type foods in response to the action of the animals, while still providing a high level of play for the animal.
The present invention fulfills this and other desires, and has additional advantages that will be apparent from the following descriptions of the invention and from the description of a preferred embodiment.